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Full catalog/NBM
NBM·dataset

NOAA's blended multi-model forecast guidance

NOAA National Blend of Models (NBM)
atmosphere NOAA NOAA active
In plain English

What it measures. A single, calibrated forecast built by blending many different weather models into one consistent and skillful set of guidance, meant as a reliable starting point for official forecasts.

How it's made. NOAA combines and statistically tunes forecasts from both NWS and non-NWS numerical weather models to create this national blend.

How & where you'd use it. Gives forecasters across the country a consistent foundation for building public weather forecasts; useful for agriculture and planning.

What's measured

aws-pdsagricultureclimatecogmeteorologicalweather

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span— → ongoing

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The National Blend of Models (NBM) is a nationally consistent and skillful suite of calibrated forecast guidance based on a blend of both NWS and non-NWS numerical weather prediction model data and post-processed model guidance. The goal of the NBM is to create a highly accurate, skillful and consistent starting point for the gridded forecast.

Get the data

noaa_access.py
# NOAA Open Data on AWS — public S3, no login
import s3fs

fs = s3fs.S3FileSystem(anon=True)
# find this dataset's bucket in the docs link in the sidebar, then:
# files = fs.ls("noaa-<bucket>/...")
# open NetCDF/GRIB with xarray, COGs with rioxarray
NOAA Open Data is on public AWS S3 — no login at all (anonymous access).